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Although I did love his first TD pass to Crabs this last game. More of that please.

You will get no argument from me on that one! Honestly those are the throws I EXPECT him to make, and he hasn't made to many of them - so I'm hoping that one wasn't one of the blips on the radar, but a trend.

"All we care about are wins, stats are for losers" - Justin Smith
" I donít know how to say itÖ I donít have the words for it. Let me say it this way, as Iíve said all along, you work at the pleasure of the organization." - Jim Harbaugh

I find it comical that Alex's status is on a week to week basis. One week he's good and the next week, he's the worst QB in the league. As fans, I think we tend to be fickle, petty and overanalyzing. The bottom line is that this team is winning WITH Smith. No QB is going to be perfect. Not even Rodgers or Brady and as we can see this season...Brees.

I find it comical that Alex's status is on a week to week basis. One week he's good and the next week, he's the worst QB in the league. As fans, I think we tend to be fickle, petty and overanalyzing. The bottom line is that this team is winning WITH Smith. No QB is going to be perfect. Not even Rodgers or Brady and as we can see this season...Brees.

It's absolutely true, but not all of us. I think fans tend to overreact, and fans also can be hard to please, the latter I simply don't understand.

I personally find more bragging rights winning with a "mediocre" QB than a "elite" one, and I have said many times that if Peyton was here and we won a SB it would be all about Peyton. No thanks. Give me teams like the SF Giants. Teams.

But to each his own.

That being said, I will firmly believe that Kaepernick is "the guy" until we see him go through a couple seasons at the helm and prove us all wrong. It isn't his time yet, but I truly believe it will be some day.

I just don't understand why optimism is so hard to come by for some people. I remember when no one wanted Young to start, and look at what we think of him now.

30 years from now, who knows how Smith and Kaepernick will be remembered by us.

It's absolutely true, but not all of us. I think fans tend to overreact, and fans also can be hard to please, the latter I simply don't understand.
I personally find more bragging rights winning with a "mediocre" QB than a "elite" one, and I have said many times that if Peyton was here and we won a SB it would be all about Peyton. No thanks. Give me teams like the SF Giants. Teams.

But to each his own.

That being said, I will firmly believe that Kaepernick is "the guy" until we see him go through a couple seasons at the helm and prove us all wrong. It isn't his time yet, but I truly believe it will be some day.

I just don't understand why optimism is so hard to come by for some people. I remember when no one wanted Young to start, and look at what we think of him now.

30 years from now, who knows how Smith and Kaepernick will be remembered by us.

You don't understand because you're OK with mediocrity. Like you said...to each his own. You see a team that whipped the Arizona Cardinals. So do I. I also see the team that laid an egg vs the Giants at home and vs a vastly inferior team in Minnesota. Both of those games demonstrated the teams weakness which is at QB and to a lesser extent, but still significant special teams. You see 18-19 and 3 TDs. Great game no doubt. I see a QB that takes too many sacks and won't throw the ball more than 5 yds down the field unless there's a blown coverage. What's your opinion of the game if Crabtree and Moss don't turn passes that should have been short gains into TDs? Crabtree should have been tackled around the 5. Would you be screaming about a pass short of the end zone? I sure as hell would have.

You don't understand because you're OK with mediocrity. Like you said...to each his own. You see a team that whipped the Arizona Cardinals. So do I. I also see the team that laid an egg vs the Giants at home and vs a vastly inferior team in Minnesota. Both of those games demonstrated the teams weakness which is at QB and to a lesser extent, but still significant special teams. You see 18-19 and 3 TDs. Great game no doubt. I see a QB that takes too many sacks and won't throw the ball more than 5 yds down the field unless there's a blown coverage. What's your opinion of the game IF Crabtree and Moss don't turn passes thatSHOULD HAVE been short gains into TDs? Crabtree SHOULD HAVE been tackled around the 5. Would you be screaming about a pass short of the end zone? I sure as hell WOULD HAVE.

You can't use any of these words in an after the fact argument. There are no hypotheticals, it either happened or it didn't. Yes Smith had some bad games and yes he's had some good games. When you argue stuff like you are above is why people give you such a hard time.

You can't use any of these words in an after the fact argument. There are no hypotheticals, it either happened or it didn't. Yes Smith had some bad games and yes he's had some good games. When you argue stuff like you are above is why people give you such a hard time.

That sir, is how you set yourself up to lose. If you look at it like you're suggesting, which seems like saying "it happened and we won and that's good enough for me". You set yourself up. If you look at it like I'm suggesting, which is "you can't count on an opponent to play poorly because even if you win you have to be able to recognize where you need to get better to be able to beat a team that plays well" you set yourself up to win. A playoff or NFCC or SB "appearance" is not a good season to me. It's just a lousy draft pick. If a game is lost because the other team does a great job and beats them...then ok. If a game is lost because of weaknesses that were apparent during the course of the season, but ignored because games were being won anyway...that's not ok.

Most fans are unable to understand that...which is really the reason they give me such a hard time.

You don't understand because you're OK with mediocrity. Like you said...to each his own. You see a team that whipped the Arizona Cardinals. So do I. I also see the team that laid an egg vs the Giants at home and vs a vastly inferior team in Minnesota. Both of those games demonstrated the teams weakness which is at QB and to a lesser extent, but still significant special teams. You see 18-19 and 3 TDs. Great game no doubt. I see a QB that takes too many sacks and won't throw the ball more than 5 yds down the field unless there's a blown coverage. What's your opinion of the game if Crabtree and Moss don't turn passes that should have been short gains into TDs? Crabtree should have been tackled around the 5. Would you be screaming about a pass short of the end zone? I sure as hell would have.

The team is 6-2. The greatest teams in NFL history have lost games they should have easily won. They have been blown out. This is just a stupid argument. Is Alex Smith "elite?" No. He's the best we have RIGHT NOW, which is all that matters. You have to work with what you have. They tried to upgrade the position in the offseason. It's been beaten to ****ing death.

Smith isn't as mediocre as you think he is and he isn't as good as some people think. He's somewhere in between. Taking what the defense gives you doesn't make a QB mediocre. This team is going to have designed shot plays they get off of their running game. That's just fact.

Even when they had Andrew Luck at Stanford, Roman and Harbaugh did the same thing. They ran the ball 55% of the time. They had designed shot plays, but mostly Luck was throwing high percentage balls. Look up what Greg Cosell was saying about Luck before the draft. His concern about Luck was that he didn't make tight window throws and was in an offense that only had designed shot plays. He didn't say he couldn't throw guys open or throw into tight coverage. Only that he didn't do it.

Part of is Alex Smith's philosophy as a quarterback, but the other part is the philosophy of the coaching staff.

That sir, is how you set yourself up to lose. If you look at it like you're suggesting, which seems like saying "it happened and we won and that's good enough for me". You set yourself up. If you look at it like I'm suggesting, which is "you can't count on an opponent to play poorly because even if you win you have to be able to recognize where you need to get better to be able to beat a team that plays well" you set yourself up to win. A playoff or NFCC or SB "appearance" is not a good season to me. It's just a lousy draft pick. If a game is lost because the other team does a great job and beats them...then ok. If a game is lost because of weaknesses that were apparent during the course of the season, but ignored because games were being won anyway...that's not ok.

Most fans are unable to understand that...which is really the reason they give me such a hard time.

Really not understanding you chain of logic. You say that because Crabtree and Moss exploited an opponents weakness that it was bad of Smith somehow? I know they were short passes, but we had another QB at one point that made a HOF career out of putting the ball into his playmakers hands on short routes that turned into touchdowns.

Really not understanding you chain of logic. You say that because Crabtree and Moss exploited an opponents weakness that it was bad of Smith somehow? I know they were short passes, but we had another QB at one point that made a HOF career out of putting the ball into his playmakers hands on short routes that turned into touchdowns.

No, I absolutely did NOT say that. I have said several times during the discussion that Smith played very well. I don't know why I have to repeat that in every post or it's completely forgotten. Thos HOF QBs you're talking about did exactly what you're saying...sort of. The difference is, they would do that over an over again until the defense did something stupid, like bring the 8th and 9th defenders in the box, then exploit the single coverage. The problem is...that doesn't happen now. The defense brings the 8th and 9th guys up, but the single coverage matchups are not exploited. If Montana or Young or even Garcia saw Rice or Owens with single coverage...that's where they were going. Period. If Smith has Moss or Crabtree, or Davis singled up...he thinks about it.

That's as simple as I can think to explain my thinking on the subject.

No, I absolutely did NOT say that. I have said several times during the discussion that Smith played very well. I don't know why I have to repeat that in every post or it's completely forgotten. Thos HOF QBs you're talking about did exactly what you're saying...sort of. The difference is, they would do that over an over again until the defense did something stupid, like bring the 8th and 9th defenders in the box, then exploit the single coverage. The problem is...that doesn't happen now. The defense brings the 8th and 9th guys up, but the single coverage matchups are not exploited. If Montana or Young or even Garcia saw Rice or Owens with single coverage...that's where they were going. Period. If Smith has Moss or Crabtree, or Davis singled up...he thinks about it.

That's as simple as I can think to explain my thinking on the subject.

Alot of our deep routes are not there consistently enough to go there. Davis has said that most of his routes are being taken away, Moss is not in often in most games, Crabtree is a short catch YAC guy, Ginn and Williams are inconsistent. I don't blame us for not going deep lately.

Alot of our deep routes are not there consistently enough to go there. Davis has said that most of his routes are being taken away, Moss is not in often in most games, Crabtree is a short catch YAC guy, Ginn and Williams are inconsistent. I don't blame us for not going deep lately.

I understand your point of view here.

Something I was curious about. I've always thought (with no evidence, just an assumption) that a QB has audible options on nearly every play. Someone else in this thread (sorry I'm not certain who) mentioned that he/she saw somewhere that Smith has up to 3 pass and 3 run audibles on most plays. Do you (or anybody in here) know if that's actually true?

West Coast Offense is about short passes, with that opening up the deep pass. The real, the original West Coast Offense by Sir Bill Walsh, is about getting the ball out to high percentage routes, which are 5 yard outs, slants, hitches and stop passes. It opens up the out and up or the wheel, the hitch an go, the slant and go. And thats the kind of WCO we run. Not Reids style of wait in the pocket for 4 seconds and throw it deep...

Originally Posted by heimdog8

I didn't want to throw this information out here. I was a 3 year varsity starter at QB in high school. I played quarterback in junior college as well. I was considering playing division 1 football as well but chose to pursue my career in business instead. However, currently I am helping train with Derek Carr from Fresno State get ready for his pro day and the draft. I am also working with Cody Kessler, the USC quarterback.

Something I was curious about. I've always thought (with no evidence, just an assumption) that a QB has audible options on nearly every play. Someone else in this thread (sorry I'm not certain who) mentioned that he/she saw somewhere that Smith has up to 3 pass and 3 run audibles on most plays. Do you (or anybody in here) know if that's actually true?

He has at least two, probably more. Likely has at least two run plays and two pass plays. I've seen him check a run into a different run play. He's done that a lot. He's doing quite a bit at the line pre-snap this year. He's a reason why the 49ers are doing so well in the run game this year.